Pulmonology

As the world leader in endoscopy, Olympus provides cutting-edge medical technology to health-care professionals around the globe.
In the respiratory field, Olympus provides a wide range of innovative solutions — not only bronchoscopes but also solutions for endobronchial ultrasound, peripheral and pediatric bronchoscopy, as well as EndoTherapy instruments.
Olympus continually innovates in order to provide the most advanced equipment to support progress in respiratory diagnosis and treatment.

Bronchoscopy Apps

As part of the commitment by Olympus to improve education in respiratory endoscopy, various training software packages and applications have been developed. Learn more about the latest BronchoGuide app and the LC Staging app and follow the link to download the apps.

BronchoGuide App

Experience a bronchoscopic examination by steering the HDTV BF-H190 bronchoscope through the bronchial tree, from one carina to the next. Discover new app highlights like the 3D visualization of bronchopulmonary segments helping you to explore the bronchial anatomy.

Bronchoscopy (NBI and AFI)

In diagnostic bronchoscopy, a flexible bronchoscope is used to visually inspect the trachea and bronchi.

Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) and Autofluorescence Imaging (AFI) are two modalities that are deservedly gaining greater interest in the medical community. To a significant degree, this is due to their ability to provide more information that can lead to faster and more accurate diagnosis of a number of conditions, particularly relating to tissue thickening. With benefits like these, the arguments for using these technologies are very persuasive.

NBI provides great potential for defining the nature of a bronchial lesion, allowing a closer, more accurate look at the angiogenic process. NBI is a promising technology as it combines good sensitivity with improved specificity. It allows superior discrimination between low- and high-risk lesions (such as CIS and severe dysplasia). NBI is available with standard videoscopes on recent Olympus video endoscopy platforms.

While NBI allows easier identification of changes in the vascular patterns, AFI identifies thickened mucosa. AFI is an interesting tool for the diagnosis of central lung cancer and premalignant lesions.

Traditionally, distinguishing inflamed areas from cancerous processes has been a common problem. To help to solve this, AFI can be used. By observing changes in fluorescence intensity, AFI may assist the early detection of a suspicious lesion, displaying normal tissue in green and abnormal tissue in magenta.

AFI is available on the dedicated Olympus autofluorescence platform, EVIS LUCERA ELITE, with one dedicated autofluorescence endoscope for bronchoscopy.

Sampling

For general diagnostic purposes or if an abnormality is discovered, sampling using Bronchoscopic Alveolar Lavage (BAL), brush, forceps, or needle might be needed.

Olympus offers balloon catheters in two different sizes and a washing pipe for peripheral BAL

Olympus offers a versatile lineup of brushes to meet the needs of specific clinical requirements. The metal tip of the brushes enables perfect visibility under fluoroscopy and leads to atraumatic brushing. Thanks to their fine micro-bristles that collect significantly more cells than standard bristles, better diagnostic results can be achieved.

Bronchoscopists have identified a number of advantages offered by Olympus biopsy forceps. The sharpened cups ensure superior cutting performance, which can lead to fewer artefacts and less bleeding. The high-quality stainless steel allows smooth cup operation in any situation. There are no sharp edges and the swinging-type head ensures full compliance to even angulated working channels. Some target sites are difficult to approach, but the reusable Olympus SwingJaw biopsy forceps and EndoJaw single-use swinging cup forceps allow tangential targeting of the lesion.

Olympus offers an extended range of needles for cytology and histology to meet a variety of clinical requirements. Olympus TBNA needles offer excellent puncture performance and their sophisticated design reduces damage inside the scope channel while ensuring the smoothest passage through the channel. There are standard, side-hole, and trocar type needles available. The unique side hole allows the drawing of more specimens from tissue in contact with the side of the needle.

Foreign Body Removal

The removal of a foreign body using bronchoscopy can be challenging due to its size and consistency, as well as due to the limited access to its location. Objects may be removed with the help of a flexible bronchoscope and the appropriate grasping instruments.

A variety of instruments, such as grasping forceps or retrieval baskets, can be used to remove foreign bodies, depending on the type of object involved. Olympus offers a versatile product lineup of grasping forceps, baskets, and loops to extract foreign bodies:

Superb grasping power for reliable and safe extraction

Various designs to grasp different types of foreign bodies

Single-use and reusable devices available

Also for 1.2 mm biopsy channels for peripheral and pediatric foreign body removal

Grasping devices – the appropriate device for every situation

The X-Trac extraction bag can collect small, big, or even several pieces at one time. Perfect isolation of sharp foreign bodies.

Forceps with rubber tip for sharp or flat objects like needles and pins. Ideal for slippery foreign bodies.

Energy

Bronchoscopic electrosurgery can be used for a number of bronchoscopy applications, for example, tumor ablation and debulking, cauterization of lesions, hemostasis, and bronchial biopsies.

Immediate medical attention is often required in the treatment of tumors obstructing the trachea or the bronchus. In the past, the tumors were resected through thoracotomy or removed by forceps using rigid bronchoscopes. However bronchoscopic electrosurgery is a cost-effective alternative for tumor ablation and debulking.

Post-intubation tracheal stenosis can be caused by multiple factors and is a complication of prolonged endotracheal intubation. If the stenosis is an web-like type, reopening with electrosurgical knife is possible.

Hemostasis can be achieved effectively using electrocautery. Bleeding in the bronchi can occur while taking a biopsy or debulking a tumor. Smaller bleeds are generally not problematic, but they can become life-threatening if the bleeding cannot be stopped.

Bronchial biopsies can be performed using hot biopsy forceps, which are equipped with large cups that allow fast, efficient collection of tissue using high-frequency cauterization to prevent bleeding.

Cut, Coagulate, Resect and RetrieveOlympus has designed versatile electrosurgical devices to meet all requirements for high-frequency bronchial electrocautery.

Pediatric

Flexible bronchoscopy is widely used in the diagnosis of respiratory pathologies in children of all ages. Biopsies, bronchoscopic cytology, and foreign body removal present common challenges that can be met with the selection of the appropriate techniques and instruments.

Olympus offers a full lineup of mini-instruments for pediatric bronchoscopy which are compatible with 1.2 mm channel bronchoscopes for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in the peripheral lung and small bronchi of children.

This range covers grasping forceps and baskets for foreign bodies of different shapes and surfaces and forceps and cytology brushes for diagnosis even from the small bronchi.

Thoracoscopy

Medical thoracoscopy, also called pleuroscopy, is a procedure involving internal examination, biopsy, and/or resection of disease or masses within the pleural cavity and thoracic cavity. It is a valuable tool in the management and investigation of pleural diseases because the technique enables a wide variety of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

Thoracoscopy may be performed either under general anesthesia or under sedation with local anesthetic.

Direct examination of the thoracic cavity can be achieved through medical thoracoscopy under local anesthesia enabling pleural biopsy. Pleural biopsy is a procedure to remove a sample of the tissue lining the lungs and the inside of the chest wall to check for disease or infection.

The Olympus semi-rigid pleuroscope is designed to be used for endoscopic diagnosis and treatment within the thoracic cavity and may be used with EndoTherapy devices such as biopsy forceps and electrosurgery devices.

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